DIY History | Transcribe | Campus Culture | Ain't I A Woman? newspapers, June 1970-July 1971

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Ain't I A Woman? newspapers, June 1970-July 1971

1970-12-11 "Ain't I a Woman" Page 12

  In our fifth issue we did a page called Things Men Can Do. It was a smashing success. Not surprising. Men are a smashing success -- writing about men, having a man, or the ultimate smashing success of being a man. What made our page even more successful than it might have been was the liberal, easily digestible content. There was nothing we suggested for me to do that was difficult. We suggested they discover, they think, they cry, they remember. men could easily follow the advice we gave in between fucking their chicks or running THEIR movement to meditate on their privileged position.
   The page was reprinted in several movement publications (Movement with a capital M not to be confused with the Women's Liberation Movement). It was hung on walls of student or radical newspaper offices. But very conveniently the bottom part of that page was left off. Underneath our suggestions we excerpted a part of Robin Morgan's "Goodbye To All That" and an inch square block for men who want to write in our paper was provided suggesting that they sharpen their crayons.  Conveniently we had drawn a thing line to divide the type (which was the bottom section) from the handwriting of our suggestions so movement papers could easily cut off the top -- the palatable from the bottom. We even realize that they probable thought the two were separate. But they weren't. They merely represented the schizophrenia involved in women (the oppressed) relating to men (the oppressors).
   We didn't give that page the time or the thought that we have given to most other pages we have printed. We didn't talk together to iron out the differences that we had among us over the subject. We threw it together the night before the paper came out. The stuff that we have worked hard on has been about women and what women can be doing because it is women who need the changes we are talking about most desperately. And now as women we can only struggle to relate our experiences and muddle through a seeming mirage of complexes to find a direction in which to work. It is not easy to find the ans

[handwritten text in box separate from typewritten text]  Things for Men to do:
-Discover what your privileges are as part of a privileged caste
-Discover why you can't give someone else your privileges
-Think about what you feel when you look a woman up and down.
-Kiss a brother.
-Try to be emotional about something close to your heart
-Hold your legs together every time you sit down for a whole day.     Cry
-Remember all the times you felt like crying when your dad played with you too roughly.
-Discover what it's like to be called irrational when you are just expressing strong feelings on an issue that's important to you.
-Think about the difference between a relationships of two women and one of a man and a woman.[]

wers we need but we need them and should not be wasting time supplying copy to a male mutilated and yes -- a still male dominated movement or supplying suggestions for men -- it is women with whom our concern lies.
   The things we have written about women have mostly been reprinted by women, for it is women who are concerned about their lives -- not men. Movement male papers cannot seem to assimilate the stuff we write unless it is about them (nicely about them) or unless it is written in male movement rhetoric -- unless it is good agit prop for the (their) revolution. The personal experiences about women would not be political enough for them. Ask them to cry and they'll print that. Ask them to print what Seattle women have to say about the macho maneuvers of the Seattle Liberation Front and that's another story altogether. We women are probably pretty lucky that how and what we write does not interest the male left for we need times to determine where we should be moving and the male left has never cared let alone had much to offer in terms of constructive analysis for anyone but white radical males.
   We were really sweet and they loved us but we were not really being us -- we were not really being honest. We said, "Discover why you can't give someone else your privileges", but that is to say the opposite of what it is really all about. Those privileges they hold that are decent we want and must determine how to take. That is if they cannot discover how to give them to us. And those privileges that are indecent - the privilege that comes by being a male in a system that denies the value of being female unless you are filled with a prick most of the time -- those privileges have to be removed by any means necessary. If men are holding on to those privileges, they're going to be in the way. They can deal with that as best they can -- we have no suggestions.
   But we do have the following -- another successful episode of:

THINGS FOR MEN TO DO PART II
Wrap yourself in dynamite, walk into the Pentagon and Light UP

Page 12   Volume 1 No. 20    AIN'T I?

Saving...

In our fifth issue we did a page called Things Men Can Do. It was a smashing success. Not surprising. Men are a smashing success -- writing about men, having a man, or the ultimate smashing success of being a man. What made our page even more successful than it might have been was the liberal, easily digestible content. There was nothing we suggested for me to do that was difficult. We suggested they discover, they think, they cry, they remember. men could easily follow the advice we gave in between fucking their chicks or running THEIR movement to meditate on their privileged position. The page was reprinted in several movement publications (Movement with a capital M not to be confused with the Women's Liberation Movement). It was hung on walls of student or radical newspaper offices. But very conveniently the bottom part of that page was left off. Underneath our suggestions we excerpted a part of Robin Morgan's "Goodbye To All That" and an inch square block for men who want to write in our paper was provided suggesting that they sharpen their crayons. Conveniently we had drawn a thing line to divide the type (which was the bottom section) from the handwriting of our suggestions so movement papers could easily cut off the top -- the palatable from the bottom. We even realize that they probable thought the two were separate. But they weren't. They merely represented the schizophrenia involved in women (the oppressed) relating to men (the oppressors). We didn't give that page the time or the thought that we have given to most other pages we have printed. We didn't talk together to iron out the differences that we had among us over the subject. We threw it together the night before the paper came out. The stuff that we have worked hard on has been about women and what women can be doing because it is women who need the changes we are talking about most desperately. And now as women we can only struggle to relate our experiences and muddle through a seeming mirage of complexes to find a direction in which to work. It is not easy to find the ans [handwritten text in box separate from typewritten text] Things for Men to do: -Discover what your privileges are as part of a privileged caste -Discover why you can't give someone else your privileges -Think about what you feel when you look a woman up and down. -Kiss a brother. -Try to be emotional about something close to your heart -Hold your legs together every time you sit down for a whole day. Cry -Remember all the times you felt like crying when your dad played with you too roughly. -Discover what it's like to be called irrational when you are just expressing strong feelings on an issue that's important to you. -Think about the difference between a relationships of two women and one of a man and a woman.[] wers we need but we need them and should not be wasting time supplying copy to a male mutilated and yes -- a still male dominated movement or supplying suggestions for men -- it is women with whom our concern lies. The things we have written about women have mostly been reprinted by women, for it is women who are concerned about their lives -- not men. Movement male papers cannot seem to assimilate the stuff we write unless it is about them (nicely about them) or unless it is written in male movement rhetoric -- unless it is good agit prop for the (their) revolution. The personal experiences about women would not be political enough for them. Ask them to cry and they'll print that. Ask them to print what Seattle women have to say about the macho maneuvers of the Seattle Liberation Front and that's another story altogether. We women are probably pretty lucky that how and what we write does not interest the male left for we need times to determine where we should be moving and the male left has never cared let alone had much to offer in terms of constructive analysis for anyone but white radical males. We were really sweet and they loved us but we were not really being us -- we were not really being honest. We said, "Discover why you can't give someone else your privileges", but that is to say the opposite of what it is really all about. Those privileges they hold that are decent we want and must determine how to take. That is if they cannot discover how to give them to us. And those privileges that are indecent - the privilege that comes by being a male in a system that denies the value of being female unless you are filled with a prick most of the time -- those privileges have to be removed by any means necessary. If men are holding on to those privileges, they're going to be in the way. They can deal with that as best they can -- we have no suggestions. But we do have the following -- another successful episode of: THINGS FOR MEN TO DO PART II Wrap yourself in dynamite, walk into the Pentagon and Light UP Page 12 Volume 1 No. 20 AIN'T I?